15 WWE Gimmick Changes That IMMEDIATELY Backfired
12. Hulk Hogan Morphs Into Mr. America
Hulk Hogan routinely borrowed from Billy Graham's playbook throughout his career. Indeed, his rise to legendary status in the WWF of the 1980s owed a lot to nabbing from what 'Superstar' had done before him, and Hulk's nWo persona even rocked many familiar outfits from Graham's prime as a heel. By 2002, Hogan had returned to past glories in the WWF, and he appeared to be cosplaying Billy as he did it.
Suddenly, a sharp left field turn happened.
Vignettes had been hyping it for weeks, but then Mr. America danced into view on the 1 May 2003 SmackDown. This character was designed to prolong Hulk's feud with Vince McMahon, but it was woefully bad and the sort of thing WCW at their worst would’ve been ashamed of. WWE announcers played along and questioned who it was, which was about as convincing as Lance Storm's dancing later in the year.
All wasn't well behind the scenes though. Hogan quit the promotion in July, but not before he gave America one last whirl on the 26 June SmackDown in a 6-man tag match. Once WWE's cameras went dark, he lifted the mask to show the fans who he was post-show (as it they didn’t know), which McMahon used as a means to fire Hogan in storyline. The whole thing was far too hokey to work, and it wasn’t a patch on anything Hulk had done since returning to the WWF in '02.
People had re-embraced Hulkamania the prior year, and it was genius of WWE to revive it, but this Mr. America malarkey wasn't what fans who had grown up with Hogan wanted to see. It was the latest example of creative tailspinning from a company struggling to find direction overall.